Everything about Django Reinhardt totally explained
Jean-Baptiste "Django" Reinhardt (
January 23,
1910 –
May 16,
1953) was a
Belgian Sinto Gypsy jazz guitarist. He was one of the first prominent jazz musicians to be born in Europe, and one of the most renowned jazz guitarists of all time. His most renowned works include "My Sweet", "Minor Swing", "Tears", "Belleville", "Djangology" and "Nuages" (
French for "Clouds"). His name is .
Biography
Born in
Liberchies,
Pont-à-Celles,
Belgium, Reinhardt spent most of his youth in
gypsy encampments close to
Paris, playing
banjo,
guitar and
violin from an early age professionally at
Bal-musette halls in
Paris. He started first on the
violin and eventually moved on to a
banjo-guitar that had been given to him and his first known recordings (in 1928) were of him playing the banjo (a banjo guitar has six strings tuned in standard guitar tuning).
At the age of 18 Reinhardt was injured in a fire that ravaged the caravan he shared with Bella, his first wife. They were very poor, and to supplement their income Bella made imitation flowers out of
celluloid and paper. Consequently, their home was full of this highly flammable material. Returning from a performance late one night, Django apparently knocked over a candle on his way to bed. While his family and neighbors were quick to pull him to safety, he received first- and second-degree burns over half his body. His right leg was paralyzed and the third and fourth fingers of his left hand were badly burnt. Doctors believed that he'd never play guitar again and intended to amputate one of his legs. Reinhardt refused to have the surgery and left the hospital after a short time; he was able to walk within a year with the aid of a cane.
His brother Joseph Reinhardt, an accomplished guitarist himself, bought Django a new guitar. With painful rehabilitation and practice Django relearned his craft in a completely new way, even as his third and fourth fingers remained partially paralyzed. Hence, he played all of his guitar solos with only two fingers, and managed to use the two injured digits only for chord work.
Career
In 1934,
Louis Vola formed the "
Quintette du Hot Club de France" with
Reinhardt,
violinist
Stéphane Grappelli, Reinhardt's brother
Joseph and
Roger Chaput on guitar, and himself on bass. Occasionally Chaput was replaced by
Pierre "Baro" Ferret. The vocalist
Freddie Taylor participated in a few songs, such as "
Georgia On My Mind" and "
Nagasaki".
Jean Sablon was the first singer to record with him more than thirty songs from 1933. The concept of "
lead guitar" (Django) and backing "
rhythm guitar" (Joseph Reinhardt/Roger Chaput or Pierre Ferret) was born with that band. They also used their guitars for percussive sounds, as they'd no true percussion section. The Quintet du Hot Club de France was one of the few well-known jazz ensembles composed only of string instruments.
Reinhardt later formed bands with more conventional instrumentations as with
clarinet or
saxophone,
piano,
bass and
drums. He produced numerous recordings at this time with the quintet. But he played and recorded also with many American Jazz legends such as
Coleman Hawkins,
Benny Carter,
Rex Stewart (who later stayed in Paris), and a jam-session with jazz legend
Louis Armstrong. Reinhardt could neither read nor write music, and was barely literate. Stéphane took the band's downtime to teach him.
WWII
When
World War II broke out, the original
quintet was on tour in the
United Kingdom. Reinhardt returned to
Paris at once, leaving his wife behind. Grappelli remained in the
United Kingdom for the duration of the war. Reinhardt reformed the quintet, with
Hubert Rostaing on
clarinet replacing Grappelli's violin. In 1943, Django married Sophie Ziegler in
Salbris, with whom he'd a son,
Babik Reinhardt, who became a respected guitarist in his own right.
Reinhardt survived
World War II unscathed, unlike the many Gypsies who perished in the
porajmos, the
Nazi regime's systematic murder of several hundred thousand European Gypsies, quite a few of whom were sent to
death camps. He was especially fortunate because the Nazi regime didn't allow jazz to be performed and recorded. He apparently enjoyed the protection of the
Luftwaffe officer Dietrich Schulz-Köhn, nicknamed "Doktor Jazz", who deeply admired his music.
Post war
After the war, Reinhardt rejoined Grappelli in the UK, and went on to tour the
United States, opening for
Duke Ellington, and playing at
Carnegie Hall, with many notable musicians and composers such as
Maury Deutsch. Despite Reinhardt's great pride in touring with Ellington (one of his two letters to Grappelli relates this excitement), he wasn't really integrated into the band, playing only a few tunes at the end of the show, with no special arrangements written personally for him. He was used to his brother, Joseph, carrying around his guitar for him and tuning it. Allegedly, Reinhardt was given an untuned guitar to play with (discovered after strumming a chord) and it took him five whole minutes to tune it. Also, he was used to playing a
Selmer Modèle Jazz, the guitar he made famous, but he was required to play a new amplified model. After "going electric", the results were not as much liked by fans. He returned to France with broken dreams, but continued to play and make many recordings.
Django Reinhardt was among the first people in
France to appreciate and understand the music of
Charlie Parker and
Dizzy Gillespie whom he sought when he arrived in
New York. Unfortunately they were all on tour.
After returning to France, Django spent the remainder of his days re-immersed in gypsy life, having found it difficult to adjust to the modern world. He would sometimes show up for concerts without a guitar or amp, or wander off to the park or beach, and on a few occasions he refused even to get out of bed. Reinhardt was known by his band, fans, and managers to be extremely unpredictable. He would often skip sold-out concerts to simply "walk to the beach" or "smell the dew". However, he did continue to compose and is still regarded as one the most advanced
jazz guitarists.
In 1948, Reinhardt recruited a few Italian jazz players (on bass, piano, and snare drum) and recorded one of his most acclaimed contributions, "Djangology", once again with Stephane Grappelli on violin. However, his experience in the U.S. left him influenced greatly by American jazz, making him a different player to the man Grappelli had known. But on this recording, Reinhardt switched back to his old roots, once again playing the Acoustic Selmer-Maccaferri. This recording was recently discovered by jazz enthusiasts and is now available in the U.S. and Europe. Reinhardt and other guitarists of the
Quintette du Hot Club de France used
Selmer acoustic guitars.
In 1951, he retired to
Samois-sur-Seine,
France, near
Fontainebleau. He lived there for two years until
May 16,
1953, when, while returning from the
Avon train station, he collapsed outside his house from a
brain hemorrhage. It took a full day for a doctor to arrive and Django was declared
dead on arrival at the hospital in
Fontainebleau.
Influence
Many musicians have expressed admiration for Reinhardt (whose main influence was
Eddie Lang), including guitarist
Jimmy McCulloch, classical guitarist
Julian Bream; country artist
Chet Atkins, who placed Reinhardt #1 on a list of the ten most influential guitarists of the 20th century (he placed himself fifth); Latin rocker
Carlos Santana; blues legend
B.B. King; the
Grateful Dead's
Jerry Garcia;
Black Sabbath's
Tony Iommi;
Jimi Hendrix;
Synyster Gates;
Shawn Lane;
Stevie Ray Vaughan;
Derek Trucks;
Mark Knopfler;
Les Paul;
Joe Pass;
Peter Frampton;
Denny Laine;
Jeff Beck;
Jon Larsen;
Steve Howe;
Charlie Christian;
George Benson;
Wes Montgomery;
Martin Taylor;
Tchavolo Schmitt;
Stochelo Rosenberg;
Biréli Lagrène;
John Jorgenson;
Michael Angelo Batio;
Richard Thompson;
Robert Fripp; and
Jeff Martin.
Willie Nelson wore a Django Reinhardt T-shirt on tour in Europe in 2002, stating in an interview that he admired Django's music and ability. The British guitarist
Diz Disley plays in a style based on Reinhardt's technique and he collaborated on numerous projects with Stéphane Grappelli.
Django Reinhardt also had an influence on other styles and musical genres, including
Western Swing, notably in the work of
Bob Wills.
Musicians have paid tribute to Reinhardt in many other ways, such as by invoking his name in their own work or personal life.
Jimi Hendrix is said to have named one of his bands the
Band of Gypsys because of Django's music. A number of musicians named their sons Django in reference to Reinhardt, including
David Crosby, former
Slade singer
Noddy Holder,
Jerry Jeff Walker,
Richard Durrant, and also actors
Nana Visitor &
Alexander Siddig and
Raphael Sbarge. Jazz musician
Django Bates and singer-songwriter
Django Haskins were named after him.
Songs written in Reinhardt's honor include "Django," composed by
John Lewis, which has become a jazz standard performed by musicians such as
Miles Davis. The
Modern Jazz Quartet titled one of their albums
Django in honor of him. The
Allman Brothers Band song
Jessica was written by
Dickey Betts in tribute to Reinhardt — he wanted to write a song that could be played using only two fingers. This aspect of the artist's work also motivated
Black Sabbath guitarist
Tony Iommi, who was inspired by Reinhardt to keep playing guitar after a factory accident that cost him two fingertips. Composer Jon Larsen has composed several crossover concerts featuring Django inspired music together with symphonic arrangements, most famous is "White Night Stories" (2002) and "Vertavo" (1996).
In 2005, Django Reinhardt ended on the
66th place in the election of
The Greatest Belgian (
De Grootste Belg) in
Flanders and on the 76th place in the
Walloon version of the same competition
Le plus grand Belge.
Reinhardt in popular culture
Reinhardt has been portrayed in several films, such as in the opening sequence of the 2003 animated film
Les Triplettes de Belleville. The third and fourth fingers of the cartoon Reinhardt are considerably smaller than the fingers used to play the guitar. He is also portrayed by guitarist
John Jorgenson in the movie
Head in the Clouds. In the classic Italian western
Django, the titular hero is presumably named after Reinhardt. In the climax of the movie, his hands are smashed by his enemies and he's forced to fire a gun with his wounded hands.
Reinhardt's music has been used in the soundtrack of many films, including the oracle scene in
The Matrix;
Rhythm Futur (95 minute mark) and
I Can't Give You Anything But Love (41 minute mark) in
The Aviator;
Nuages in
Gattaca; the score for Louis Malle's 1974 movie,
Lacombe Lucien;the background for the
Steve Martin movie
L.A. Story; the background for a number of Woody Allen movies, including
Stardust Memories, where Woody's character plays a Django record;
Honeysuckle Rose in the background of the Central Park carriage ride scene in
Kate and Leopold; during the Juilliard audition in the movie
Daltry Calhoun;
Minor Swing and
Blues Clair in
Metroland for which
Mark Knopfler wrote the score; his rendition of
Brazil can be heard on the
"Something's Gotta Give" soundtrack; and
Minor Swing in the scene in the painter's house in the Italian film "I Cento Passi", and as played by
Johnny Depp plays in the river party scene in
Lasse Hallström's
Chocolat. Reinhardt's work also figures heavily into
B. Monkey and
The Pallbearer. Reinhardt's music has also been featured in the soundtracks of several video games, such as the 2002 game and the 2007 game
BioShock.
Reinhardt has been a subject in several works of fiction.
Harlan Ellison's short story "Django" is a fantasia about a guitarist, with similarities to Reinhardt. Author
William Kotzwinkle's 1989 collection, The Hot Jazz Trio stars Reinhardt in a surrealistic fantasy also featuring
Pablo Picasso. An extended discussion of Reinhardt takes place among several characters in the novel
From Here to Eternity by
James Jones. The character Andre Custine has a
double bass that had been played by Reinhardt in the novel
Century Rain by
Alastair Reynolds.
Reinhardt has also been featured as an idol by some characters, like the fictional 1930s guitarist
Emmet Ray (played by
Sean Penn) in the
Woody Allen film
Sweet and Lowdown(
1999). In the film, it's related how Ray passed out upon meeting Django. Reinhardt is also the idol of the character Arvid in the movie
Swing Kids, where the character's left hand is smashed by a member of the Hitler Jugend (HJ), but is inspired to continue by Reinhardt's example.
Reinhardt has been the subject of lyrics in several songs, such as
Django, a version of the
John Lewis standard, from the 1973
Lindsey Buckingham /
Stevie Nicks self-titled debut album; the song "Muskrat Love" by
America (band) makes a comment about Django, though spelled "Jango" in the lyrics; the lyrics of the
Norwegian song
Tanta til Beate by
Lillebjørn Nilsen mentions Django several times; the song "Feel So Numb" by Rob Zombie on the album "The Sinister Urge" refers to Django with the lyric "Django drag a coffin nail across your back".
The
Django web framework, a
Python web framework, was named after Reinhardt.
Reinhardt's grandson David, approximately age 21 in 2008, is a composer and plays jazz guitar.
Discography
At least eight compilations have also been released.Further Information
Get more info on 'Django Reinhardt'.
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